Melville Piano

[jimjazzuk]

Hello everyone,

I have has this piano since I was a child and now that I'm older (and professional) I am wondering whether to buy a new acoustic piano or renovate the one I already have. I have not played on it for years and I was just wondering whether or not it was worth spending money on?

Have any of you any idea how old it is?

I cannot find anything about Melville London pianos on the web - did they perhaps just make the case?

I thought for a start about replacing the key tops with some more modern plastic ones. But I noticed the keys are a little uneven - could that be sorted out easily enough?

The action needs firming up - a tuner once did that for me on a few keys and made them more responsive. How easy is that to do?

Many thanks everyone

Jim



Inside mechanism...


Lower panel removed...


Keys...


Serial number...? 34118


more insides...

[Bill Kibby]

The vast majority of piano names are not listed on the internet. I have over twenty thousand on files, and many are meaningless aliases used by retailers. I have no record of a real maker named Melville so far. The Herrburger Brooks action indicates that it was made after 1919, but similar pianos were made until the fifties.

Nobody can guess the value or condition of a piano without tuning it, and regulating is a skilled job that requires years of training. Your tuner will tell you what can be done, and what it might cost.

[Colin Nicholson]

Hi Jim

Personally, I would think about getting a better or newer piano. I have noticed on the lowest photo (action & strings), there are various chalk marks on the ends of various tuning pins - is that right? This is something that I do when tuning a piano with very loose tuning pins to highlight to the customer that these strings cannot be tuned successfully, or that they have been 'put in tune' but will quickly go out of tune within a few days (or even hours). It could be that the wrest plank is cracked - and since this is an exposed wrest plank (the gold effect where the pins are driven in is wood - not metal), as various chalk marks run in a series of patterns.... if the plank is cracked.... a serious restoration job, that isn't worth the name or design of the piano.... so new key tops should be the last priority.

A larger tuning pin could be considered, but releasing tension on strings, then bringing them back up to pitch - on an old piano - usually results in the string breaking, so for all the loose pins, new strings may be required aswell.... assuming there is no internal damage to the wrest plank - of which cracks are not always visible to the naked eye.

Are there any notes seriously out of tune?
Has the piano been attempted to be tuned recently?

Hope that helps....

CN

[jimjazzuk]

Thank you very much both of you!

You probably come across this all the time... I'm torn between sentimental value and wanting something nice to play. I went to Birmingham conservatoire so I'm really looking for a more professional instrument both for practice and for teaching.

The Melville was half-tuned by a local tuner about 2 years ago, but he said he would have to come back in order to fully tune it. It doesn't sound too bad really and there are no strings that have completely dropped in tune like an old comedy Victorian piano.

I'm not sure if there are any cracks, and I think the chalk marks are just on all the "C" note pins.

I could take some more photos for you to look at but I suppose the best thing would be for me to get another tuner to come and have a look at it more closely?

If I were to buy a good second hand piano, what would you recommend and how much do you think I would have to spend to get something half decent?

Thanks again

Jim

[Johnkie]

Hi Jim,

The chalk marks on your wrestpins would indicate only that someone has marked the "C's", and this normally happens if a tuner is doing a quick rough tuning without the action in place to get it back up to pitch using a plectrum. The chalk marks just indicate where (s)he is whilst doing this .... we call it "Chipping up" - Not many tuners would do this though, unless it's been re-strung and they're just getting it roughly at the correct pitch. It also happens when either less experienced (or cowboy) tuners are trying to tune with the action in place .... I am always wary of pianos with these "note markings" on wrestpins because it has a good chance of being tampered with by a non-professional.

Colin's quite right though in saying that we do often mark the odd loose wrestpin. From your (very good) set of pictures, and from what you say, I wouldn't give up on it, if you generally like the sound and feel of this piano. The keys are clearly in need of leveling and re-bushing, so one can assume that other parts have worn too, making it pretty certain that a good technician could work wonders on it ..... if you want to spend money getting it restored.

[Colin Nicholson]

Agree there Johnkie, seems too much of a coincidence that the loose pins would be at every octave, and affecting all 2 or 3 pins vertically! doesn't ring true. I also wouldn't like to be around anyone chipping this fella up without the action firmly in .... crikey! after looking at the rusty pressure bar screws - makes me wonder what condition the coils are in - so yeh, could be quite dangerous any attempts of chipping up.

I would also rather lose a piece of wedge or clip damper felt rather than my eye!

If your piano hasn't been tuned for over 2 years, then it will be WELL out of tune in terms of concert pitch - and most of the strings will have dropped uniformly probably around 1/4 of a tone if not more.

If the pianist is well - read as suggested & a decent pianist, then don't look back. Lots of good pianos out there .....

[Bill Kibby]

A quarter of a tone in 2 years would be an awful lot. When I come across a piano which has been badly neglected for years, it is always interesting to check the pitch, and try to assess how much it may have dropped per year. Some are marked with their previous pitch, and as a rule, I find that most pianos drop more in a year than they can safely be raised in a single tuning, so leaving the tuning over a year to save money may well result in extra expense in having it tuned twice!

An old Bluthner grand, kept in cool, humid conditions, with gentle daily playing, needed hardly any attention after 12 months. A rare and surprising example was a Schiedmayer 1913 grand, which was said to have been left untuned for about 30 years, yet it was so close to standard pitch that it came up quite easily in just one tuning! A Spencer piano left untuned for about 40 years only dropped 12Hz at Pitch A. Pianos are amazing! A Bechstein upright made around 1900 was transported to Holland and back in recent years, and the pitch and tuning of unisons was hardly affected, but it was then placed close to a radiator, and within months, many of the wrestpins were very loose, and it was untuneable.

Other examples of pitch-drop measured around the middle octave include...
8 Hz in 30 years
6 Hz in 4 years
15 hz in 2 years.

[Bill Kibby]

We are not supposed to reproduce large amounts of text or pictures from other websites. As for the piano, I was under the impression it was a British Melville, and Clark was not mentioned.

[MarkGoodwinPianos]

Just a spammer Bill
He'll probably be deleted later on